


Not Yet.

by LinksLipsSinkShips



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Childhood Friends, First Kiss, Larry King interview, M/M, growing older
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 19:18:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15955811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinksLipsSinkShips/pseuds/LinksLipsSinkShips
Summary: When Larry King asks them if they're gay, Rhett and Link respond "not yet" almost in unison. But it's not the first time they've given that answer, either to each other or to others. The truth is, they've been giving the answer for years, again and again, and eventually, they have to face the truth of what Not Yet really means for them.





	Not Yet.

The first time, they were only twelve. Link can remember it clearly, like it happened just yesterday instead of 28 years before. He was playing video games with Rhett, sitting there, and he started talking, mostly in hopes of distracting Rhett so he could win. “So I think I might kiss a girl soon,” was how he started it. It was true, he’d been going steady with a girl for a solid couple of weeks, and with him being nearly a teenager, he figured it was time to make that move.

“You mean you haven’t already?” Rhett asked, without missing a beat.

“Quit messin’ around, Rhett, it isn’t like you have.”

“I have!” Rhett said.

“Stop joshin’ me. You would’ve told me,” Link said, offended that Rhett hadn’t said anything about it. He believed Rhett, but he didn’t want to. This was the kind of thing you were supposed to tell your best friend, and Rhett hadn’t even mentioned it to him.

“It didn’t seem important,” Rhett shrugged, pausing the game. “It happened at the pool, so it isn’t like you were there.” It was true, he and Rhett went to different pools over the summer, barely even saw each other because of how busy summers could get. But that wasn’t important. He couldn’t stay mad at Rhett for not telling him, because now he needed some answers.

“Was it good? How’d you do it? Did you kiss her?” Link had more questions than he could even process through, and instead of focusing on one, spilled a bunch at once.

Rhett sighed heavily and set the controller on the ground in front of him. He turned to face Link. “It was okay, I guess. And I just leaned in and did it. And yeah, I kissed her, not the other way around.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Got anything else while you’re givin’ me the third degree or…?”

“I dunno. I guess I wonder how you knew you wouldn’t like, be bad at it…” Link mumbled.

“Bad at it? Where’s your confidence at? I knew I wouldn’t be bad at it because I’m Rhett freakin’ McLaughlin!” Rhett smacked Link’s chest with the back of his hand. “You have to have balls, man. Just go for it, that’s all.”

“Did you practice?” Link asked.

“Practice?”

“You know, on a shower, or a bedpost or something?” Link felt weird asking now, because Rhett twisted his face like he was crazy.

“You can’t practice on a bedpost! Nothing about a bedpost is anything like a girl. It can’t kiss you back!” Rhett said.

“Well then how am I supposed to know I’m not going to blow my first freakin’ kiss, Rhett?” Link asked.

“You could practice on me,” Rhett offered.

“Wait, are you gay?” Link wasn’t sure why he was asking such a dumb question. Rhett had literally just said he kissed a girl, so he couldn’t be.

“Not yet,” Rhett laughed. “Come on, kiss me. It won’t count. It’s just practice.”

So Link did what Rhett said. He leaned in, planting his lips on Rhett’s, and for a moment, they just held still there. Link wasn’t really sure if he was supposed to move his lips or do anything, so he just waited, counting to four in his mind because it seemed like the right number of seconds to let this keep happening. Then he pulled back.

Rhett wiped at his lips with the back of his hand. “I’m still not gay,” he said. “But you’re not a bad kisser. You could probably kiss a girl if you wanted to.”

* * *

 

Both of them seemed to forget about all of that for the longest time. When they were sixteen, though, it was hard for Rhett to forget it. He was supposed to go home earlier that afternoon. His mom had been clear on getting home before the snowstorm hit, and he knew he was supposed to. But somehow, he and Link got mixed up in what they were doing, some hilarious conversation they were having, and Rhett lost track of time. It wasn’t until Link’s mother popped her head in. “Oh! You’re still here,” she said. “That snow’s getting awfully heavy out there.”

“Shoot,” Rhett said, looking out the nearest window. There was no way he was going to get the Dynasty home in that kind of weather. “Would it be okay if I stayed the night?” Of course, it was okay. It was always okay with Link’s mom. And after some profuse apology and recognition that he knew when he was supposed to be home and should have been more responsible, his mother granted him permission, too.

It was a completely ordinary night. Rhett had slept over at Link’s house a thousand times. But he hadn’t slept over at Link’s house during a raging blizzard, with snow whipping around the house and the winter winds howling loudly. When the power went out that night, cold began to seep through the cracks where the window didn’t quite close all the way, chilling Rhett to the bone until his teeth chattered. Extra blankets weren’t cutting it, and eventually Link didn’t have anything else to offer Rhett aside from the one blanket he was using to try to keep himself warm.

“This is gonna sound weird, but I think you should get in my bed,” Link said. “It’s too cold and we’ve gotta share the blankets or we’re both gonna freeze to death.”

“You want me to  _ cuddle  _ with you?” Rhett asked, confused. Link hadn’t offered to cuddle, though. He’d offered to share blankets. But cuddling didn’t sound bad considering. They were both freezing cold and Link didn’t protest, lifting his blanket.

“I just want you to get your butt over here and make us both stop shivering. Don’t make it weird.”

“You gay?”

“Not yet,” Link snarked, bringing back the memories of Rhett saying that to him years before. Rhett chuckled and tossed the blankets he’d been hoarding onto Link, then slid into the space beside him, making sure they were both piled under the covers. He rolled over away from Link, doing his best to avoid much physical contact. After all, they were both in this for the blankets.

But when Link fell asleep, he shifted, draping an arm over Rhett’s body, and as he pulled Rhett toward him, Rhett let himself be moved, shifting back to press his back against Link’s chest. The external warmth was one thing. The internal burning feeling he felt of… he wasn’t sure what, embarrassment, maybe, or happiness? was significantly warmer.

* * *

 

Rhett was mostly wasted. Their first big college party? He was going  _ hard _ . It seemed like Link probably was, too, but he couldn’t remember the last time he saw him that night. They’d split up at the table of drinks, a mutual agreement to check out everything happening, and assumed they’d reconvene at some point or another. They hadn’t, but Rhett wasn’t concerned at all. He’d find Link eventually.

And he did find Link only a few minutes later, his slender body stretched across a table. “Hey, Rhett! Look at me! I’m the body shot, uh, gosh, what’s the word? Facilitator? I’m somethin’. Come see!”

“You’re somethin’, alright,” Rhett agreed, laughing. He stumbled over toward the table. “Body shots, huh? Never done one of those.”

“You should do one,” a girl behind him said. “Unless you’re too chicken to do one off of a guy.”

“He’s not just a guy,” Rhett instantly got defensive. “That’s my best friend!” He turned his attention back to Link, who wasn’t wearing a shirt. “But yeah, I’ll do it.”

The girl helped Link set up, pouring salt and placing the lime in all the right places. All Rhett had to do was lick salt off of the skin just above Link’s waistband, slurp a little tequila from his belly button, and then bite the lime Link held in his mouth. It seemed simple enough. Rhett leaned down, trying to steady himself against the dizziness he felt from the alcohol he’d already consumed. Before he could dip his head to lick the salt, he heard a snort from behind them. “A dude doin’ body shots off of a dude? Y’all gay or something?”

“Not yet,” Rhett and Link answered in unison, then cackled over it. They met each other’s eyes and laughed again, so hard that the liquor dripped off of Link’s stomach where it had been. It should have been a sign, should have been something, that they both answered so easily. Rhett briefly wondered the precedent it set that they had an answer readily available for this kind of situation, but the thing was, nobody understood their friendship, so this didn’t seem any different.

“Dang it,” the girl pouring the shot said. “Now I have to re-pour it.” Rhett didn’t take his eyes off of Link’s the entire time she poured the shot, a stirring feeling inside of him that had to be mostly alcohol. He turned his attention back to Link’s stomach, lowered himself down and licked the salt, then drank the tequila. He got close to Link’s mouth, sinking his teeth into the lime and holding there. He wasn’t sure what it was about how Link was holding the lime or how he had bitten it, but somehow their lips touched a little bit and it felt intense and overwhelming. Rhett pulled back and Link blinked his eyes, swallowing heavily. His breath was a little shaky.

He sat up, looked Rhett in the eye, and said “I’m still not,” and walked away, disappearing into the crowd.

“Me, neither,” Rhett mumbled to no one in particular. He sounded less sure than Link had.

* * *

 

Late nights were hard. They were working harder than ever trying to make something of this whole online thing, doing the Kast to try to grow an audience. It meant putting in extra hours. It meant their wives being annoyed at how much they put into the online thing, and mostly it meant them sitting way too close to fit behind the card table that housed their show.

It’s why tensions were always high anymore. There were decisions on creative control and topics and what to do next and all of that took effort and energy, energy they barely had left over at the end of the day.

It was during one of those heated arguments that Rhett did something. He wasn’t entirely sure why he did it other than he really, really wanted Link to shut up. He’d been going on and on about numbers and views and something about Christy and a time change and so many different things. Rhett had stopped listening ages ago, and yet, Link was still talking. Finally, Rhett stood up from the chair he was in, walked over to Link, bent down, and kissed him.

Rhett could feel the words freeze on Link’s lips, the way he stopped talking immediately to kiss Rhett back. He could feel himself sink down, a blurry haze over him as he sat next to Link, trying to get them both more comfortable as Link’s hand snaked around his neck. Rhett reached up to put his own hand over Link’s, to hold it in place, to tell him  _ yes  _ this was what he wanted. They both kissed each other. This wasn’t like the first kiss they’d shared, Link’s first kiss  _ ever _ , where they’d both been young and timid and given each other a peck. No, this was an all-out kiss, a situation where tongues were parting lips and teeth were scraping skin and if they weren’t careful, one of them just might make a move to let this go further.

It was that realization that made Link jerk his hand and his face away from Rhett and pull back, stumbling away from the couch. “What… what… the hell was that?” he asked, his brow furrowing. “I… you… you kissed me!” he accused, and Rhett just sat there, watching his freakout happen. “Are… are you gay or somethin’?”

“Not yet,” Rhett choked out, hoping that their repeated throwback to the same word would snap Link out of his intense emotional outburst. It didn’t, though. Link grabbed his jacket off of a chair.

“I have to go. I… I just have to go. I’ll… I don’t know, Rhett. I’ll call you.” He slammed the door behind him.

Rhett felt hollow. And he felt hollow because only minutes before, he’d felt something else entirely. “Don’t worry, Link,” he muttered to himself and the empty room around him. “You’ll see how not-gay I can be.” He was never, ever going to kiss Link again, not if it garnered that kind of reaction from him.

* * *

 

Link could feel how hard Rhett was every time he shifted. They were taped together, completely, head-to-toe, and thanks to some platform shoes, Link’s ass was perfectly crotch-height for Rhett, lining them up. At first, it wasn’t even his fault. It was the way they were taped.

It didn’t take long for Link to get more control of his movements, though, and when he did, it was hard to resist the temptation of shifting a little bit more to get Rhett worked up even more. Rhett wasn’t exactly resisting him, either. Once in a while, he’d tell Link to stop moving so much or try to pull back away from Link, but all that did was pull Link back with him. They were, after all, completely taped to each other so tightly personal space no longer existed.

So, for a few moments at least, it was intentional. It was intentional the way Link shifted his hips as he heard Rhett breathe and pant into his ear, and Link was certain the sounds Rhett produced had far more to do with the physical contact than the exertion of trying to move the both of them, especially because they’d barely gotten started.

But it wasn’t until they were on the ground, until words like  _ penetrate  _ were escaping from their mouths (and at that point, Link couldn’t be sure if he or Rhett said it, because taped together, they felt more like one being than usual, and that was saying something), Link wasn’t trying to get Rhett off all that much. He just… was. By the nature of his scent and his body and his warmth, he was.

Rhett tried not to let himself get distracted and tried not to give in, but everything Link was doing was working for him. It’s why he was glad that, to the audience and crew at least, he could pretend his grunts and groans were from trying to get dressed and not because he was thrusting forward just as much as Link was shifting back. Neither of them said anything to acknowledge it, but he was certain Link knew halfway through that Rhett was consciously trying to get off, rubbing against him.

There was no hiding it from Link when he came on his back, no keeping it quiet, but Link looked downright victorious anyway, so Rhett wasn’t worried. Of course, he could have just been thrilled they’d gotten the Guy Fieri costume on themselves like the challenge presented, but Rhett knew it was more.

That was only confirmed by Link in the dressing room that afternoon, as Rhett worked to change into clean clothes without stealing too many glances at Link. They’d had many moments before that fans would describe as “Rhinky.” Little on-screen looks, touches, times when they’d cross invisible lines and seem like they were together, all of that rang in his mind. But they’d made an effort, made it clear that what happened on screen wasn’t  _ real.  _ This, though, this was real. There was evidence, his come on the inside of his bodysuit, seeped through to Link’s back. There was no denying it.

“That was, uh… that was interesting,” Link said, wiping at a small bit of foundation he’d used to cover a splotch of discoloration on his skin. “You, uh, you enjoy filming that one?”

It was enough to send Rhett into a rage. How could Link joke like this when he’d walked away like he had the last time Rhett had made a move, years ago? How could Link push Rhett, give Rhett the friction he needed, and then laugh at it here at Rhett’s expense. “Interesting? You think me coming because you rubbed on me is interesting? Guess what, Link? People get off all the time. Rub anybody long enough and they’ll get off. That doesn’t mean they freakin’ liked it. That means they had a physical response to something. It meant  _ nothing _ , so don’t act all smug like it’s about you.”

“Jeez, Rhett, chill. I was just--”

“Yeah, you were just being a smartass thinking you’re hot shit to get me all hard in a suit when you’re taped to me. Anybody could’ve been taped to me and it would’ve been the same thing. Go home and try it, rub it and tell me you don’t have the same physical response. You ain’t shit, Neal,” Rhett said. He slammed the dressing room door behind him, and the reverberation from it shook Link’s body, but also his heart and the lump forming in his throat.

* * *

 

Rhett was nervous, his usually sweaty palms seeming even sweatier. Larry King was a big deal. He’d been interviewing people for decades and he was known to ask tough questions. There wasn’t a lot of preparation, wasn’t any way for Rhett to know what he might ask or the questions he might have for them. Instead, they had to wait and wonder and hope it wasn’t anything too pressing.

But Larry didn’t wait to ease them into things. It didn’t take any time at all for him to level one important question out there between them. “Are you gay?” he’d asked simply.

“Not yet,” they both answered, nearly in unison, and Link noted how natural it was. The thing was, it  _ was  _ natural. They’d been answering that question that way for almost 39 years to each other, at least, in various contexts and levels of being okay with things. But they’d also answered it that way to others, an easy joke, a quick way to deflect any sort of feelings into humor. They’d said it to other YouTube celebrities when they’d asked them, they’d said it to friends when they were introduced as a pair, and they’d thought it again and again and again when they confronted what they felt.

The thing was, they’d both pulled away from it when it came to each other. They’d used “not yet” as a way to make it seem like they weren’t into what the other was offering. But each of them knew each other as well as they knew themselves. Rhett could say all he wanted that he wasn’t turned on by Link in intimate moments on the show, but whenever Link watched it back, the obvious heart eyes were clear. Link knew what they meant and how Rhett had to feel. And Rhett knew Link better than anyone, even better than Link knew Link sometimes. Rhett knew that Link turned his shower off every time to lather, and had for most of his life. He knew that Link chewed his food 30 times before swallowing. And mostly, he knew that no matter what Link said anytime they got close, Link was attracted to him.

Somewhere along the line, probably in all the times they’d come close and pushed each other away with their “not yet” response, the one they’d unintentionally practiced again and again, they stopped asking each other, stopped pushing each other, and stopped giving each other the chance to respond like that, perhaps out of fear that they’d eventually answer differently.

But others had asked, and even though it had died down and they hadn’t been asked recently, the response was still right there. “Are you gay?” “Not yet.” It was the exchange they’d grown used to. Larry King asking was no different. The answer itself was no different. Rhett, though, felt the need to explain themselves. “We grew up on a North Carolina timeline.” The implication was clear: if they’d have lived anywhere else, any other time, things might have been different and they might not have found wives when they were in college. Perhaps, even, they might have found each other. Link also couldn’t get over it. He felt the need to tell Larry that yes, many speculated about it, some enough that they’d written hundreds of thousands of words about their supposed relationship. He’d read more of those words than he’d ever care to admit to Larry King or Rhett or anyone else, but he felt the need to mention them anyway. If other people saw it, thought it, perhaps it wasn’t all in his head that Rhett might feel the same. Perhaps, he figured, the heart eyes were real after all.

Rhett’s mind buzzed the entire rest of the interview. It was easy to give the answers they were used to giving. Yes, we eat weird food, no, I don’t like congealed blood. Yes, we like doing youtube and hope to expand to other mediums someday, no, we don’t have a show on television just yet. He didn’t have to think about those answers, didn’t have to try to come up with them, and if his brain was simply too out of it to do it, Link was right there, able to provide the answer Larry was looking for.

Because of it, Rhett focused on one thing and one thing only: the question Larry had asked about them being gay. The way Link replied, it almost seemed like he was happy to be asked about it again, and Rhett wasn’t fully sure how to take it. Perhaps Rhett was just thinking about it all too much. They’d been on a whirlwind media tour while they were away, stopping by multiple shows and filming multiple collaborations, so it made sense for him to try his hardest to let it go. As Link answered the next question, he was pretty sure Link had already forgotten about their easy, synced-up answer anyway.

* * *

 

Neither of them talked about it at the hotel. The last thing either of them wanted was to upset the balance. It seemed like for a while, they were just running on the high of finishing a day full of interviews, but eventually, the elephant in the room was becoming apparent. They had two options: address it head-on, or drink to a good day and pretend it didn’t exist. Link chose the latter, pouring himself a drink and offering one to Rhett, as well.

“Dink it?” he asked. Rhett obliged, clinking his glass against Link’s.

“And sink it,” he said, downing it in one swallow. “More?”

Link poured him more, then refreshed his own glass. It was obvious by the speed at which they were throwing celebratory drinks back that neither of them wanted to talk about it, but also that neither of them thought better than whittling down their own sensibility to avoid it.

“Larry had some interesting questions,” Rhett started, his eyes already feeling heavy from the alcohol a few drinks in.

“He did,” Link said. “Somehow I don’t think that simulcast deal is going to happen,” he said with a laugh, shaking his head.

“Wasn’t talking about that question,” Rhett mumbled, taking another sip of his drink.

“I know,” Link said. He knew exactly what question was on Rhett’s mind. It was the same one that had been tickling the edges of his brain ever since Larry asked it.

“So,” Rhett paused, looking at Link. “Are you? Gay, I mean. I feel like we’ve been going through this for years and sometimes I’m still confused.” He wasn’t sure why his lips were so loose right now, why he felt like going beyond the typical “you gay?” that they’d offer up in moments like this where they were  _ too close. _

It didn’t matter. Link had an easy answer on the tip of his tongue. “Not yet.” He took a drink. “I could be convinced, though.”

That was all he needed to say, all that he needed to indicate, the yes Rhett had been longing for. He set his drink down and crossed over to where Link was sitting, leaning down into his space. There was alcohol on his breath when he asked “yeah?” He wasn’t going to make this move without more permission from Link than the knowledge that he could be convinced.

“Yeah,” Link said, leaning forward. They were inches apart now, closer than they’d been in a long time. It felt inevitable, like they’d been begging each other for this without words, like they’d been teetering on the edge and needed someone to push them over and somehow that someone just happened to be Larry King. But it didn’t matter who pushed them over. All that mattered was that they were in free fall, which meant Rhett’s lips on Link’s and then Link’s lips on Rhett’s neck, and then fingers on hemlines and buttons and zippers trying to get closer, closer, closer until there was nothing between them anymore.

Rhett sat on Link’s lap precariously, wondering how Link was able to hold him there so well. Link looked up at him, the height difference only exaggerated by their positioning. If Link drew Rhett any closer, he’d practically be inside of him, but as it stood, they still had their signature MeUndies, which just so happened to match by accident, like they so often did, between them. Link took a deep breath, looking Rhett in the eye. “You gay?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty gay.”

“I’ve been waiting way too long to hear you answer that question like that.”

“You gay?” Rhett asked Link.

He got a nod in response, a sly, crooked grin. “Now that we’ve, uh, established that… bed?”

“‘m not tired,” Rhett said, smiling back.

“I didn’t say anything about sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to clemwasjustagirl/shewasjustagirl, mythical-trash, and fanbabble for their thoughts and opinions and input on this!


End file.
